Glossary of Terms Used in the VaYetze Weekly Torah Portion

Jacob’s Ladder

“Jacob’s Ladder” is the middle line by which one should walk; it is the golden path. This is the line in which one connects all of one’s elements, the good and the bad.

In fact, nothing is bad. If we know how to use the bad correctly, we turn it into good and helpful. This is why Jacob’s Ladder is our desires, which are initially the evil inclination, as it is written, “I have created the evil inclination.” However, if we connect these desires to “I have created for it the Torah as a spice,” this combination creates the middle line.

On the one hand, we constantly correct worse and worse desires, since “one who is greater than his friend, his desire is greater than him”(Masechet Sukkah, 52a ). The more we advance, the more we discover how evil we are. A greater force comes to us, the force of the light that we discover, which we must expose and with which we correct ourselves. When the two connect in the degrees, we grow “richer,” both from the desire and from the light that corrects the desire.

Thus, the sum total of one’s soul grows (in the connection between them), and in it, the Creator increasingly appears. This is how we attain the middle line, until we actually reach Beit El.

Love

“Love” means that instead of my own desire to enjoy, I take others’ desires and satisfy them. Love means using all my capabilities to satisfy others. Love is self-annulment; I have no desires of my own, nor anything that I want to do for myself. I am only for others.

When we connect with each other in this manner of love, we acquire all the souls, all the other desires, which then become our own. When we satisfy them, we obtain infinity (Ein Sof).

Seven Years

“Seven years” means seven degrees: there are six degrees of Zeir Anpin, called “the Holy One, blessed be He,” and the seventh is Malchut. Together they are seven degrees that must achieve unity. Seven is always a complete number. There is also the number ten, which is Gadlut (adulthood), but usually, the structure consists of seven.

Reward

In our world, “reward” means that I satisfy myself. In spirituality, “reward” means that I have an opportunity to satisfy others.